Rlp911's Blog

I actually forgot I had this site until I realized I was being billed for it.  I looked and the last time I logged in or did anything here was two years ago.  We all think the world revolves around us and in some respects it does.  Each of us are citizens of the big blue orb but in reality we, each of us, create our own worlds in which we live in.  Think about it for a moment.  Every time you see a car driving down the road the space inside that car is a world unto itself.  The people in that car are citizens of that world and unless they let you in you are an outsider that has no idea of what goes on in that world.  Science wants us to believe in parallel universes but I say we are surrounded by them at every turn.  We interact with these other worlds all the time.  We even understand the rules, for the most part, of the worlds we interact with but even they are different to ours at some very basic levels.  The world I have created does revolve around me because I created it.  The problem comes when your world does not revolve around me.

The actual world cares very little if you are rich or poor, alive or dead, healthy or ill.  Your world however does.  In this way the world you live in exists because it is your construct.  Even your wife or significant other who lives very close to your world, even within the boundaries  cannot completely, not wholly share your world. Why? Because no one on this earth can live inside your head and no matter how open you are or try to be everyone holds something back.  That withholding is what makes your world yours and yours alone.  Inside your mind is where your world lives and it can’t be shared completely with anyone.  We each have our dark side we suppress and for the most part keep in check.  We don’t want people to see the ugly inside of us.  Even the most kind, gracious, and generous person you may know under the right circumstances are capable of terrible things.  Those actions may be explainable even understandable in the context of the action itself but when compared to the life lived to that point  they seem inexplicable.

Worlds, there seems to be only one, earth, but contained with the boundaries of that one world are over 7 billion worlds. Each valid and worthy to be considered a world in its own right regardless of what we might think about the influence  it may have had on the other worlds it bumped up against, good, bad or indifferent it was a world unto itself just the same.

In 2009 I asked some questions about the idea of predestination. I thought this might be a controversial subject for many but apparently not. No one responded or even read my thoughts so I was left to figure it out on my own. Since I am sure no one read my previous post I am almost as confident no one will read this post either. In some respects that is appealing because you write down your thoughts and no one critiques you and you are not subjected to ridicule. We know there are several out there who just sit and wait for a point of view they can shread. Sure of themselves that they are right and everyone else is stupid and wrong. They love to hear themselves speak and marvel at their own brilliance. The idea, altruistic as it is, is to throw something out there and engage in honest debate so as to examine alternative points of view that you might grow from the debate. To either cast off your view of a particular subject and adopt a new one or solidify your position and defend it with honest and open debate.

As far as predestination goes I am now sure that there is biblical support for it. There is of course biblical support for free will to. It really depends on how you read the bible. The problem is that those on either side of the issue reads the text that supports their point of view and largely ignores that which does not. In some respects you can take it both ways and apply it equally. For instance, I am sure God has chosen many he intends and intended to save and they have his grace. But it is hard to set aside the words of Jesus when He said “any who call on my name and belive in me shall be saved”. In essence free will seems to have a place just as predestination does. The problem for a guy like me is I can’t escape God’s sovereignty. If I belive God is all knowing and all powerful then He already knows “before the foundation of the earth” who will be saved and who won’t. The question is did he chose it, predestinate it, or does He just know.

To know and to choose are not the same thing. There are many arguments that can be made for such a question. I’d like to hear your thoughts on this. Also is God present in all times, past, present, and future or is He a slave to time like we are. Before you slam this question there is an understanding that knowing the future and being present in the future are not the same.

I have had an ongoing internal struggle come to a head recently and was wondering if anyone else has had to deal with this. I am Catholic but have been attending a Reformed Baptist church for several years. I find the style of preaching more to my needs because my pastor teaches from the Word instead of just reading it. I have a hunger to learn but I guess the old adage “careful what you ask for…” applies here. We have just started covering the doctrine of the RBC, “predestination”. I have always had my own views on the subject but none of these were founded in the Word, I just believed. Now I have to decide what to believe or stand the chance that I am not really saved as I have believed. I always thought I had a choice in my salvation but I am learning that may not be the case at all.

If the doctrine of predestination is true then how do I know if I am one of the chosen?

Why the need for the Crucifixion?

If God has preordained everything with no free will involved did Christ need to die on the cross?

Why would God create a people he knew would let him down?

Why would God need to be heart broken?

Are we really created in his own image?

I have many more questions. My pastor is very good and I believe he will be heaven before I ever could be, I am filled with sin, but these are questions I had relegated to be answered somewhere down the road and now is that somewhere.

Is it free will or predestination?????????????